Part 4 - Sūrya (the Time)

With its rising and setting, Sūrya creates the day and night and determines the time.^[1]

In the Vedas, Sūrya is compared to a horse that drives the year or saṃvatsara in the form of one-wheeled chariot:

sapta yuñjati rathamekacakrameko aśvo vahati saptanāmā/
trinābhi cakramajaramanarvaṃ yatremā viśvā bhuvanāni tasyuḥ/^[2]

The one wheeled-chariot mentioned in the verse is saṃvatsara, i.e. the year; single horse is the Sun, seven are his rays. The three naves of the wheel are the three seasons: rainy, winter and summer.^[3]

Again, the one wheeled-chariot is mentioned with the twelve spokes, i.e. dvādaśāra.^[4] By these twelve spokes, twelve months of the year are interpreted which form a complete year.^[5] Again, the twelve-spoked wheel is mentioned as the generator of the seven hundred and twenty offspring.^[6] These offspring are indeed the days and nights of the year, i.e. three hundred-sixty days and three hundred-sixty nights.^[7]

Sūrya is identified with saṃvatsara in the Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad thus:

eṣa ha vā aśvamedho ya eṣa tapati tasya saṃvatsara ātmā/^[8]

i.e.—the Sun that gives forth heat is the horse sacrifice, his body is the year.

The saṃvatsara or the solar year is divided into two halves, i.e. uttarāyaṇa and the dakṣiṇāyana. When the Sun turns north from the winter solstice that is called uttarāyaṇa and the opposite movement, i.e., the movement of the Sun from the summer solstice to south is called dakṣiṇāyana.^[9] In yet another verse of the Ṛgvedasaṃhitā, Sūrya’s wheel is described as constituting five spokes.^[10] The five spokes of the wheel of the chariot of the Sun indicates the five seasons.^[11]

Sūrya, as the creator of seasons is mentioned several times in the Vedas.^[12] The Vājasaneyisaṃhitā gives the names of the six seasons, viz., spring, summer, rainy, autumn, early winter and winter.^[13] The passage also indicates the respective characteristics of the seasons, such as heat, cold, dryness, etc.^[14] All these characteristics of the season are due to the special position of the earth in relation to the Sun during the earth’s revolution.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

cf., kālādhīnatvāt sarvasya sthiteḥ/ Sāyaṇācārya on Ṛgvedasaṃhitā, 1.164.2

[2]:

Ṛgvedasaṃhitā, 1.164.2

[3]:

Vide, trinābhi cakram/ tisro nābhisthānīyāḥ sandhyāḥ sambaddhā vā traya ṛtavo yasya tattādṛśam/ ke te/ grīṣmavarṣāhemantākhyāḥ/ Sāyaṇācārya, Ibid.

[4]:

cf., dvādaśāraṃ nahi tajjarāya varvarti cakraṃ pari dyāmṛtasya/ ā putrā agne mithunāso atra sapta śatāni viṃśatiśca tasthuḥ// Ṛgvedasaṃhitā, 1.164.11

[5]:

Vide, dvādaśāraṃ dvādaśasaṃkhyākameṣādirāśyātmakaiḥ māsātmakairvā araiḥ rathāṅgāvayavairyuktam/ Sāyaṇācārya, Ibid.

[6]:

cf., pañcapādaṃ pitaraṃ dvādaśākṛtiṃ diva āhuḥ pare ardhe purīṣiṇam/ atheme anya upare vicakṣaṇaṃ saptacakre ṣadara āhurarpitam// Ṛgvedasaṃhitā,1.164,12

[7]:

cf., ṣaṣṭiśca ha vai trīṇi ca śatāni saṃvatsarasyāhāni/ Śatapathabrāhmaṇa, 9.1.1.43

[8]:

Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad, 1.2.7

[9]:

Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa, 25.3.1-32

[10]:

cf., pañcāre cakre parivartamāne tasminnā tasyurbhuvanāni viśvā/ Ṛgvedasaṃhitā, 1.164.13

[11]:

cf., pañcāre pañcarturūpaiḥ arairyukte cakre saṃvatsarātmake/ Sāyaṇācārya, Ibid.

[12]:

cf., ādityastveva sarvaṛtavaḥ/ Śatapathabrāhmaṇa, 2.2.3.9;

[13]:

cf. namo vaḥ pitaro rasāya nemā vaḥ pitaraḥ śoṣāya namo vaḥ pitaro jīvāya namo vaḥ pitaraḥ svadhāyai namo vaḥ pitaro ghorāya namo vaḥ pitaro manyave/ namo vaḥ pitaraḥ pitaro namo vo gṛhānnaḥ pitaro datta sato vaḥ pitaro deṣmaitadvaḥ pitaro vāsa ādhatta// Ibid., 2.32

[14]:

cf., manyuḥ krodhaḥ/ krodha iva hi śiśira oṣadhīrdahati/ Uvaṭa, Ibid.